My wife helped open the Budweiser Events Center in 2003, and has mentioned that it appeared all the animals were treated like royalty and were super spoiled. But you also hear numerous accounts of the animals being whipped, starved, and more. I can find plenty of other ways to entertain myself without contributing to that, so I haven't been a circus fan for years now.

If this makes you sentimental or nostalgic, perhaps you'd like this video of the final Ringling Brothers / Barnum & Bailey Circus, which happened Sunday night at Nassau Coliseum in New York:

As long as the carnival still comes with New West Fest, I'll still get my annual fix of old-fashioned, color-&-light-filled entertainment.